Our second meeting was another wonderful gathering of people who stutter, and here is our short and sweet recap of the night.

We had ten people show up and four of them were first-timers. We are happy that people are finding out about our group. Marc kicked things off by asking people to introduce themselves and then say something random about themselves. The spontaneity was a great way to start things in a fun way. And moving forward, there were a couple main topics that were discussed during the night. One was the feeling of fear, and how this can often be unavoidable for people who stutter. But we agreed that usually it can be these situations which we can make into opportunities to push ourselves, to get out of our comfort zone. This idea resonates with a fundamental life lesson of course – ‘challenge yourself and you will grow.’

The second main topic of the night was when co-leader Carl, the one and only fluent speaker in the group, was asked a question about fears that fluent speakers have during speaking situations, specifically during presentations. Carl’s perspective as a fluent speaker is an interesting one because he is a person who understands the mind of a person who stutters probably as much as anyone out there. He explained how fluent speakers many times have the same type of fears during these public situations – making sure you don’t make a fool out of yourself, and not forgetting what to say during a presentation. Perhaps in some ways, we are more similar to fluent speakers than some of us may think.

We had a great support group and a great time getting better acquainted with everyone, especially the first-timers. We hope to see everyone really soon!